Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 19.2.7

19.2.7

In respect then to the route from Bember I was surprised to find myself on the very first night transported on a sudden from a torrid to a temperate zone : for we had no sooner scaled that frightful wall of the world, I mean the lofty, steep, black, and bare mountain of Bember, and begun the descent on the other side, than we breathed a pure, mild, and refreshing air. What surprised me still more was to find myself, as it were, transferred from the Indies to Europe ; the mountains we were traversing being covered with every one of our plants and shrubs, save the hyssop, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary. I almost imagined myself in the mountains of Auvergne, in a forest of fir, oak, elm, and plane trees, and could not avoid feeling strongly the contrast between this scene and the burning fields of Hindoustan, which I had just quitted and where nothing of the kind is seen. My attention was particularly arrested by a mountain, distant between one and two days from Bember, covered on both sides with plants. The side facing the south, that is, looking toward Hindoustan, is full of Indian and European plants, mingled together; but the side exposed to the north is crowded exclusively with the vegetable productions of Europe. It would seem that one side participates equally of the air and temperature of India and Europe, and that the other feels only the milder climate of the latter quarter of the globe.